Ellen Burstyn asked for scholarship program as part of Exorcist pay deal
Ellen Burstyn only signed onto the new 'Exorcist' movie after film bosses agreed to set up a a scholarship program for young actors as part of her pay deal.
The 89-year-old actress appeared in the original 1973 film playing the mother of Linda Blair's possessed young character Regan and she's now involved in plans to revisit the scary movie in a new trilogy helmed by 'Halloween Kills' director David Gordon Green - and Ellen has revealed she was reluctant to sign up at first until she got an offer she couldn't refuse.
She told The Hollywood Reporter: "I’ve turned down many versions of 'The Exorcist 2'. I’ve said no every time. This time they offered me a whole bunch of money and I still said no. And then they surprised me and they came back and said, 'We doubled the offer.' I said, 'OK, let me think about this'."
Ellen admits she was worried about the deal and decided to ask for something good to come out of it besides a bumper pay day.
She went on: "I thought, 'That’s a lot of money. Let me think about it.' The next thought that came to mind was: 'I feel like the devil is asking my price.' And the next thought that came to mind was, 'My price is a scholarship program for talented students at our master’s degree program at Pace University. That’s my price.' So I then went back and upped their up and ended up getting what I want. And I’ve got a scholarship program for young actors."
The new movie was initially billed as a reboot but it has since been revealed as a sequel to the original film and s slated for release in 2023. There are two sequels already in development.
